Book Review: Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra

‘Only Daughter’ – the last of the summer reads. What do I mean by that? As summer is fading and autumn approaching, this was the perfect book to read – light-hearted (for a psychological thriller) and enjoyable.

From Goodreads:

In 2003, sixteen-year-old Rebecca Winter disappeared.  

She’d been enjoying her teenage summer break: working at a fast-food restaurant, crushing on an older boy and shoplifting with her best friend. Mysteriously ominous things began to happen—blood in the bed, periods of blackouts, a feeling of being watched—though Bec remained oblivious of what was to come.

Eleven years later she is replaced. 

A young woman, desperate after being arrested, claims to be the decade-missing Bec.

Soon the imposter is living Bec’s life. Sleeping in her bed. Hugging her mother and father. Learning her best friends’ names. Playing with her twin brothers.

But Bec’s welcoming family and enthusiastic friends are not quite as they seem. As the imposter dodges the detective investigating her case, she begins to delve into the life of the real Bec Winter—and soon realizes that whoever took Bec is still at large, and that she is in imminent danger.

My Thoughts:

A good debut novel from Snoekstra. This story is told from alternating points of view, that of the real Bec (2003 pre-disappearence) and that of the imposter. While we don’t learn very much at all about the imposter, it was fun to read about the challenges she faced convincing people she was Bec – when you don’t know your “own” history, it becomes difficult to answer even the simplest questions. We are given brief, and I mean brief, glimpses into the fake Bec’s past, we don’t even learn her name, which I quite like as it made her an imposter through and through!

This was an enjoyable read, one I’d highly recommend to people that are looking for a psychological thriller that isn’t too complex or unsettling. The idea that imposter Bec could be caught out any time created a great suspenseful atmosphere. While some strange things did happen to the real Bec before her disappearance, I didn’t find this book chilling or unsettling, as an avid reader of psychological thrillers, for me this falls into the light-hearted category.

There were some great unpredictable events throughout this book, Snoekstra does keep you guessing till the very end.

At 288 pages this was a quick, easy and enjoyable read.

*Thank you to the author and publisher for granting me access to a digital copy of this book via Netgalley*

Only Daughter is available to pre-order from: Amazon UK